Anne - unless the people at Kew have changed their system (and I haven't been into the thing in detail), their method - on the pc screen - had always been to show many large groups of Rd. Nos. - and not to show data down to individual No. level - since obviously there is a vast quantity of data relating to Rd. Nos. (not only for glass, but for all 14 or 15 other groups - additional to glass). You identify the range of Nos. which will include the specific item you are interested in, then (either by phone prior to arriving, or in person when you arrive) you request the Register (text details) or box of Representations (the pictures) - and they try to have them available within the hour. For glass these are BT 52 and 53 from memory - (BT standing for Board of Trade).None of this is possible, of course, unless you are have a reader's ticket - and for this you must visit in person and register yourself together with a photograph (and possibly a birth certificate, but I'm not sure now about that one).

If Kew have changed their ystem, and all this may now been done on the phone, please do let me know .

It's their new (as in still in testing mode) search system Paul, which gives a precis / overview of each RD no. I had an enjoyable couple of hours last evening wading through the first 300 of some umpteen odd thousand! http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/Home

quote from Mr. thicky was meant to say..........................done on the screen.I will have a look and see how adequate it appears to be.............will save me going to Kew...........although the down side might be that drawings/pictures will not be accessible on the screen, and it's often necessary to see these.

Using Anne's link I've been in and looked at the Board of Trade references BT 52 (the bits with the text) and BT 53 (the bits with pictures). From what I can see, the screen is telling me that I will need a readers ticket to progress beyond the classification of groups, and they provide a box in which these items can be ordered for when you arrive. The screen page says that these groups have not been digitised for viewing down to single Rd. item level - so would appear that the bottom line remains that if individual items need to be referred to, then a personal visit and a Reader's Ticket are necessary. For Registration No. 580105 the following are the relevant papers to see:

This Rd. No. is part of the same sequence of Nos. as umpteen other products/materials (ceramics - metal - glass and some fabric materials) - it really is an eye opener to visit Kew and see some of the inventions and designs that form part of these Registrations. If it remains a query, I can make a visit after the Olympics.